All posts tagged Style

Betsey Johnson gave fans a sneak peek at her dance moves when she brought “Dancing With the Stars” partner Tony Dovolani onto the runway after her New York Fashion Week show yesterday. The 72-year-old designer will compete in the nineteenth season of the ABC show, which starts Monday at 8 p.m.

“You practice three hours a day, and then you have to take a day off,” Johnson told Speakeasy backstage before her show. The designer plans to wear her own designs on the show, and also plans to incorporate her signature runway move into the competition. “That’s the big thing I’ve got in my pocket,” she said. “I don’t know if the other dancers do that, but every time we’ll have a cartwheel-split. I just hope I make it a long time.” Read More »

Hours into discussing his new collection with Target, Joseph Altuzarra still looked fresh-faced and cheerful. “I have stamina,” said the 31-year-old fashion designer, dressed comfortably in a gray henley, jeans and sneakers.

Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi might have won the support of a large part of Italian voters at the past European elections. But he’s low in the approval ratings of his country’s top fashion guru.

Speaking at the end of his show on the last day of the Milan men’s fashion week, Giorgio Armani suggested to Mr. Renzi, who often goes without a tie as part of an image as a challenger to the Italian establishment, to ease up on his casual style – starting with scrapping the premier’s omnipresent white shirt.

Italian men tend to wear white shirts at formal events, often shunning it for the office as an overly American style. Mr. Renzi is “cute, but that white shirt….,” he told journalists Tuesday. Read More »

When Nina Totenberg, longtime legal affairs correspondent for NPR, first joined the organization in 1975, her biggest challenge was getting a job. She, along with Linda Wertheimer and Cokie Roberts, were known as the Three Musketeers for their trailblazing political reporting.

“All I ever did was work like a dog to keep the job and do well and be noticed as a good reporter,” she revealed in WSJ’s Work Wear series on office style. “That’s pretty much taken for granted now.”

The veteran journalist also discussed what challenges women have in today’s workforce, dressing for the Supreme Court, and getting hooked on “Say Yes to the Dress” when she was bedridden. Read More »

Related News:

Whether responding to breaking news, hosting a musical performance or interviewing heads of state, employees at NPR aim to dress appropriately for their roles. For the roughly 750 employees at the media organization’s Washington headquarters, that can mean anything from shorts and sandals in the summer to tailored suits.

“You’re going to dress differently if you’re a White House correspondent than if you are shooting video or editing tape on the overnight,” said Margaret Low Smith, senior vice president of news.

Scott Simon, host of “Weekend Edition Saturday,” said he often gets teased by his colleagues for dressing up, whether it’s because of his pocket squares or red socks, or for wearing a particularly voluminous coat in Afghanistan. “You can’t let your standards slip just because you’re in a war zone,” he quipped. Read More »

One could argue that all fashion is art, but nothing makes the statement more clear than lifestyle consultant Maria Brito’s new collection of wearable art clutches. In collaboration with three contemporary artists Kenny Scharf, Erik Parker and Carlos Rolón/Dzine, these one-of-a-kind bags are perfect to tote around a lipstick on a night out or display on a pedestal as a work of art.

Brito, founder of interior design company Lifestyling who’s worked with a range of celebrity clients, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Sean Combs, found a spectrum of “cool” art-fashion collaborations like Damien Hirst and Prada’s “Entomology” bags, but none she or her friends and clients can actually wear. “So I thought, ‘Why not create a work of art that can complement an outfit but you can also treasure?’,” she said. Read More »

At Garden & Gun magazine, employees sport a lived-in, yet refined style by mixing vintage pieces with Southern-based labels—but don’t expect to see a lot of seersucker and bow ties. The South Carolina-based publication has 46 employees at their office, a circa 1808 building that once housed an apothecary, located on King Street in historic Charleston.

“You’re not going to come down here and everyone’s going to be in white and seersucker with pearls, and wearing Lilly Pulitzer,” said assistant photo editor Margaret Houston. “I think Charleston in particular is very fashion forward.”

“There are probably some places that have a perception that we’re all hicks down here and we don’t know how to dress, and it’s just not the case,” said president and CEO Rebecca Wesson Darwin, who as the first female publisher of the New Yorker, used to live in Manhattan. Read More »

No one can say Betsey Johnson is mellowing out with age. Season after season, the 71-year-old designer continues to put her own stamp on New York Fashion Week—all while having fun, too. It was smoke, firemen, glitz and mouse rings that took center stage for her runway show Wednesday. And this time, the catwalk extended beyond Lincoln Center into Times Square, where 11 big screens broadcasted the show.

It’s an arrangement she has wanted for years—“ever since I saw ‘Blade Runner,’ where the world was projected on the buildings,” said Ms. Johnson in an interview with Speakeasy. She also sees a live broadcast as a way to make fashion more accessible, as opposed to more of an “elitist” event with insiders.

For her fall collection, Ms. Johnson took inspiration from not only “American Hustle” and Rihanna, but Madonna, Tina Turner, Pink and Nicki Minaj. The designer also looked to Pharrell Williams—enough to install a life-size cardboard cutout of the music mogul backstage. “For $125 you can blow anyone up and have them,” she said. “I wanted Pharrell; he was like the core of my show.” Read More »

Professor David Yermack of NYU’s Stern School found in a 2010 study that the first lady’s wardrobe choices could not only boost stock prices of associated companies, but, on average, a public appearance in a brand’s clothing was worth about $14 million. Mrs. Obama’s picks often sell out quickly—and even knockoff designs are snatched up.

So what will FLOTUS wear tonight? Back in 2009 during President Barack Obama’s first congressional address, Mrs. Obama caused a stir for baring her arms in an eggplant-hued Narciso Rodriguez design. In 2010 she wore a jewel-toned Isaac Mizrahi dress, and the following year she chose a silver sheath by Rachel Roy. In 2012 it was a striking sapphire number by Barbara Tfank (who talked to Speakeasy back in 2012 about dressing the first lady), and last year she went sleeveless again in Jason Wu. Read More »

Employees at Sundance Channel, founded by Robert Redford in 1996, embrace a creative office style reflective of its independent spirit. The channel, which is owned by AMC Networks, employs about 100 people at its Midtown Manhattan headquarters.

“It’s an artier crowd than you see at a lot of other networks,” said Christian Vesper, senior vice president of scripted development and current. “I think the place has always attracted people to television that wouldn’t normally be attracted to television.” Read More »

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.